Sunday, April 20, 2008

TV analysts and al-Sadr

About 200 U.S. military deserters in Canada are awaiting a decision as to whether they can take permanent residency there, a group says.The Buffalo (N.Y.) News reported Sunday a resolution before the Canadian House of Commons would allow deserters, including Patrick Hart, to seek residency there.

The above is from UPI's "U.S. deserters seek Canadian residency." We'll highlight the Buffalo News article in the next entry. After that, Isaiah's latest comic will go up. Tomorrow morning's entries may end up being dictated which would mean they would go up later than usual. Just FYI. For those wanting to make their voices hear, three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use. If you search your minds, you may also grasp that this resolution will be taking place without any attention given to it by Pravada on the Hudson's Amy Goodman.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivy, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration's wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynmaic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to asses on air.

I was in Nashua at Barack Obama's really packed speech. And we got there about two hours early and stood in line. I had my five-year-old daughter with me, and she stood in line that whole time. Along with me was lots of other older people who were using canes, young people, infants. And it was an incredibly moving and powerful experience. And also, again, just sort of--it was a cross between, you know, the "I Have a Dream" speech and a high school football pep rally. It was a bizarre, but really kind of exciting mixture.

Viewers could have put that praise into perspective had they known Melissa Harris-Lacewell was part of the Obama campaign (and, no, she didn't just happen to catch that speech). Amy Goodman knew it. Amy Goodman didn't tell her audience. Both women acted as if Harris-Lacewell was just a professor, just an objective professor.

Don't e-mail saying, "It was disclosed!" It wasn't. Not on that episode. When it was later time to attack Gloria Steinem, Goody brought Non-Sweet Melissa back on and was happy to declare that "Melissa Harris-Lacewell is a Barack Obama supporter" while Harris-Lacewell bragged about "the work that I've done on the Obama campaign" -- but that was when Goody had a different motive (turning her show into Geraldo!). She was happy to lie to her audience, she was happy to decieve them and she's NEVER apologized, she's NEVER corrected it despite telling Lou Dobbs when anyone points out her mistakes, she always corrects them. Of course, that wasn't really a mistake: she intentionally hid the fact that Harris-Lacewell was part of the Obama campaign. That's unethical. Just like military 'analysts' being presented as "objective." Since Goodman's repeatedly allowed Barack Obama campaigners and supporters (Frances Fox Piven, to name but one more) to come on her program and offer their "I'm not supporting anyone and this is my objective view" while Goodman knew damn well better (in Francie's case, she'd signed a public petition over a week prior to coming on the program, "Feminists For Barack") while at the same time shutting out past guests who used to drop by all the time (Paul Krugman, Larry Johnson, et al) -- guests who just happen to support Hillary, she's no different than the crap the White House has pulled. Both are unethical.

When someone has ties to the subject they're gas bagging on, those ties need to be disclosed to the audience. Not doing so is unethical. But it should be amusing to watch Amy Goodman hop on her high horse and talk about the big, bad MSM and how they do this with the implication that she hasn't done this for over six months now in her 'political' 'coverage.' The Progressive's January issue has an article about Barack's use of homophobia in South Carolina and, in January, Amy Goodman's interviewing the co-author of that article but never gets around to asking about that topic? She's never addressed it. Not when groups were calling on Barack to pull the homophobes off stage, not when the event took place and was protested and not when the Obama campaign issued their only statement about it (they got what they needed, was the statement). She's done entire roundtables with Barack supporters -- undisclosed to her audience. They've all expressed "objective" regret over Hillary's campaign. She's used her show to create a non-stop echo chamber so when she's all over the paper's reporting tomorrow (and trying to credit it to herself, you know she will), just remember she's a lying hypocrite. Just another propagandist trying to play like she's objective. (And she's far from alone in Panhandle Media. For laughs, someone might want to listen to that KPFA, two-hour special and realize how wrong all the Obama supporters were -- never disclosed on air as Obama supporters though all had publicly endorsed him prior to the special -- about the Texas vote.)

James Glanz and Alissa J. Rubin also make the front page of today's Times with "Iraqi Army Takes Last Basra Areas From Sadr Forces." The headline's a cute little distortion unless you consider "air and artillery strikes by Americans and British forces" to be the Iraqi army. Basically, the assualt on Saturday was the US and British pushing the bike (with training wheels) that the Iraqis were on. The article's worth reading and also notes continued fighting in Sadr City (on Saturday) that is termed less than on Friday. If indeed al-Sadr's forces are "melting" it's either to fight another day or to wait for a new leader to emerge. If Moqtadad al-Sadr's influence is waining (if), it has to do with his physical distance from Sadr City and you can be sure a follower will quickly become the leader.

Political Courage: The Pittsburgh-Tribune Review endorsed Hillary: "Clinton is far more experienced in government ...She has a real voting record on key issues. Agree with her or not, you at least know where she stands instead of being forced to wonder...Political courage is essential in a president. Clinton has demonstrated it; Obama has not." Read more.Superdelegate Gains: Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) announced his support for Hillary, noting that "throughout the 1990s, Senator Clinton...had a proven record of economic growth and higher wages for America's working families." Read more.Poll Watch: Hillary regained the lead in the Gallup Poll Daily tracking poll. She currently holds a slim lead over Sen. Obama who led by 11 points only a week ago. Read more.Negative Attacks Against Hillary: Comm. Dir. Howard Wolfson released a memo yesterday responding to the Obama Campaign being on the attack in the last weekend of the PA primary: "A major theme of Sen. Obama on the stump is that Hillary Clinton is running a negative campaign based on 'slash and burn politics' and that he represents a break from that kind of politics. In fact, in just the last 48-hours, Sen. Obama has flooded airwaves, radio, phone lines and mailboxes with negative and false attacks against Hillary." Read more.In Case You Missed It: Sen. Obama is attacking Hillary Clinton about health care in a television advertisement with claims that have been widely discredited by experts...Hillary swiftly responded yesterday in York, PA: "I just heard that my opponent has put up an ad attacking my health care plan, which is kind of curious, because my plan covers everybody and his leaves out 15 million people -- just leaves them out in the cold." Read more.Previewing Today: Hillary continues counting down to the PA primary with "Solutions for Pennsylvania" rallies in Bethlehem, PA, Johnstown, PA, and State College, PA.On Tap in PA: Hillary continues to barnstorm Pennsylvania in the final days of the primary. She hosts "Solutions for Pennsylvania" rallies in Scranton and Pittsburgh. On Primary Day, she will host an "Election Night Celebration" in Philadelphia.Office Openings: "Gen. Jack Yeager, former commander of the state's Army National Guard, spoke to supporters and volunteers who gathered at Clinton's new [West Virginia] headquarters at 191 Summers St. to celebrate the opening"... The campaign also opened a new office in Terre Haute, IN. Read more and more.If You Read One Thing Today: "In PA., Late Deciders Could Lift Clinton" Read More.

Warning re: next entry, I was thinking, "Oh, this cold isn't that bad" when I started this entry. I'm fading now. The next one will be a talking entry. And a quick one. Isaiah's comic will go up tonight and right after "And the war drags on . . ." does.

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